What problem is your brand the solution to?
“What problem is your brand the solution to?” This is the single most important question you can ask of your brand. A lot of companies get bogged down in what a brand looks like, how it sounds, what the metrics are saying. These obviously have their place, but often brands skip over this most important stage when striving for success – what problem is your brand the solution to? If you can’t explain it to a customer, a colleague or a friend over dinner in one sentence, then you need to define it, and simplify it.
Ultimately for your audience to buy into your brand (and convert to being paying customers) they need to understand at least one, or better yet, all of the following:
- How are you going to solve my problem?
- How are you going to make my life easier?
- What difference are you making in the world?
- Why should I choose you over anyone else?
The benefits (and the drawbacks)
Without clear purpose, brands risk lacking direction. It can be difficult to build connections with your audience, and therefore makes it hard to build up a solid customer base, and even harder to nurture brand loyalty.
By answering this one question, you can communicate this to your audience, and build a stronger and more meaningful connection. These types of connections are harder to break and foster loyalty and brand recommendation (the best type of marketing).
By answering this one question, any subsequent strategic or creative decision you take hinges from it. It can create efficiencies by eliminating the unnecessary and steer you towards your brand’s ideal goals. Any existing or future problem you face when developing your brand can be solved by revisiting this answer, and finding solutions through the lens of your ‘reason for being’.
And by not answering this question, by not having a clear definition of why you are the better choice in your industry, you hazard falling into the pit of cost-based purchase decisions – that never ends well. And while someone reading this may well sell everyday commodities, your brand should never be treated like one.
How to get to your answer
Of course, answering this question might not be as straightforward as it seems. So beyond carrying out a competitor analysis, in order to answer this reputed ‘silver bullet’ of a question, try prompting yourself with the following, it may help narrow down your definition:
- What does my brand do better than others?
- What do I want my customers to take away from their experience with my brand?
- If my brand didn’t exist, what would be missing from the industry?
- Where can my customers go to get the same/similar solutions? (Try to think outside your direct industry on this one.)
So now, if you have a couple more minutes, scroll back up to the top of the page, and read that question one more time.
We’re experts in helping brands answer this question, and develop stand out brand solutions to position them front of mind for their audiences. If you’re struggling to define your brand purpose, we can help you, get in touch with us today.
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